Series: Communion Meditations

Discerning the Body

By Marsha Relyea MilesÂ If you were to worship with tribal Jesus followers in the jungle of Papua New Guinea, you might find yourself sitting on a rough-hewn log rather than a comfortable pew or chair. The typical church building has a thatched roof, woven bamboo walls, a dirt floor, and “windows” that are open to the jungle (no glass or screen); the church is graced with calls of tropical birds and shaded by giant palms and lush foliage.Â Â Imagine this setting . . . the sultry, equatorial breeze wafts in, carrying with it the sweetness of exquisite rainforest flowers.

October 18, 2017

Christian Living

Lower Is Better

By Mandy Smith Mountaineer Joe Simpson tells his chilling story in the book and movie Touching the Void. Thousands of feet up the side of the 20,814-foot Siula Grande mountain, Joe”s safety line was cut, leaving him to slide, with a broken leg, into a deep crevasse. After several desperate attempts to climb up and out of the crevasse, he realized his injury made that impossible. And so, against all survival instinct, he made the excruciating choice to lower himself deeper into the crevasse, in the hope that there would be other exits further down. All the time he was

October 11, 2017

Ordinary Sacredness

By Mandy Smith We know Jesus instituted the Lord”s Supper during the Passover feast, which Jews have celebrated for generations. Passover is an annual festival remembering God”s salvation of his people from slavery in Egypt. Like all celebrations of annual holidays, it takes much preparation and is a turning point of the calendar. So, as good Jews, Jesus and his disciples prepared and celebrated this feast together. But Jesus knew this Passover would be different from all he”d celebrated before, because he knew his death was imminent. The food is a central part of the Passover feast, but so are

October 4, 2017

Discipleship & Spiritual Formation

Out of Our Depth

By Mandy Smith What makes you feel out of your depth? Starting a new job? Taking an exam? Having a child? So many situations in life force us to face the size of our own limitations. And when we do, we deal with those feelings of fear and inadequacy in our own ways””by running away, by working extra hard, by becoming anxious. Sometimes it”s not until after we”ve tried all those options that we finally stop to ask for help. But asking for help isn”t the first choice, because it requires us to admit to someone else, “I can”t

September 27, 2017

“˜I Knew You Weren”t Dead”

By Mark S. Krause Shirley Temple was one of America”s greatest actors, winning a special Academy Award when she was just 6 years old. Her greatest film may have been The Little Princess. In the movie, Shirley plays Sarah, a young girl in London during Queen Victoria”s reign. Sarah”s mother is gone, and her father is sent away to war. A while later, her father is reported as missing in action, and some believe he is dead. With this, Sarah”s life takes a turn, and the cruel headmistress at her boarding school begins treating her badly. Sarah does not give

September 20, 2017

Come to the Table

By Mandy Smith The phrase “come to the table” can mean gathering to find understanding, as in meeting to discuss how to solve a problem or end a disagreement. Lawyers “come to the table” to reconcile quarreling spouses. Warring nations “come to the table” to discuss how to end the fighting. We often think of reconciliation in these legal and political ways. But what if the table were not in an office or a war room? What if, instead of a conference or strategy table, it was a dinner table, groaning under the weight of a sumptuous feast? We often

September 13, 2017

Writing a New Ending

By Diane Stortz We rightly associate faith in Christ with new beginnings””but because of Jesus we can have new endings too. Heaven is a new ending, of course. Death won”t be the final chapter! But what about new endings while we”re here on earth? When Jesus left his home in Nazareth and began to teach and preach, he chose to announce his mission by reading aloud a passage from the book of Isaiah. It begins, “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent

September 6, 2017

Remember Me

By Diane Stortz With missionaries in the family, she had become pretty good at saying good-bye, although it”s never easy. This time, the leave-taking felt especially difficult, because not only were her daughter and son-in-law returning to the mission field, but this time they were taking their 7-week-old baby, Solomon, her first grandchild. One of the first things Solomon”s grandma did when she got home from the airport was frame some of the many pictures taken during those first seven weeks of Solomon”s life. She placed three in the family room, one on the piano, one in the bedroom, and

August 30, 2017

We Fear No More

By Jackina Stark John Donne, 17th-century poet and preacher, wrote some of the most beautiful poetry in the English language. His Holy Sonnet X, “Death Be Not Proud,” may be the greatest expression of Christ”s victory over death since Paul wrote, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55). When Donne turns to the issue of sin, his poetry isn”t always so victorious. In “Hymn to God the Father,” the speaker asks if God can possibly forgive all of his sin: Wilt Thou forgive that sin, through which I run, And do run

August 23, 2017

Sinners and Saints

By Diane Stortz Are you a sinner or a saint? If you come to Communion today as a believer and disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, the answer is that you are both. God gave the Passover observance to his people as a memorial under the old covenant. Passover was a time of remembering and celebrating from generation to generation how God led the Israelites, with a mighty hand, out of slavery in Egypt and into freedom. The blood of a perfect lamb on the doorpost of every Israelite home protected and saved God”s people as the angel of death

August 16, 2017

Epic Love, Exorbitant Cost

By Jackina Stark It is said that John Milton, 17th-century poet, arguably the greatest poet of all time, read everything of consequence in English, Latin, Greek, and Italian, and that he knew the Bible by heart. He wanted to use the greatest literary form, the epic, to honor the greatest kingdom and hero of all time. In his unparalleled Paradise Lost (1667), he tried to explain something of God”s ways to man. In book three (of 12), Milton fictionalizes the moment Jesus makes his grand commitment to God and man. God and the Son watch Satan, who is bent on

August 9, 2017

When I Come to the Cross – Images of Sorrow and Joy

By Jackina Stark Scholars have suggested two details about the cross that I have found intriguing. One has to do with where the cross might have been placed. Some suggest it was not erected at the top of Golgotha but at the base. This is in keeping with crucifixions taking place in busy thoroughfares, but it puts the cross too close to an unconcerned, gawking public for my comfort. It puts it, for that matter, too close to me. The second detail some scholars suggest is that Jesus might have been hung only a few feet above the ground. The

August 2, 2017

Worship Worship & Prayer

A Vision of Otherness

By Jackina Stark I once had a vision. It was not as glorious as Isaiah”s””I can”t imagine one more glorious than that””but for me, what I saw one morning during a worship service was profoundly important. We were singing a medley of songs that ended with a beautifully melodic chorus that repeated the word holy over and over and over. I closed my eyes and got lost in the word and found, quite unexpectedly, a new understanding of who Jesus is and what holy means. Twice in the hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy,” God is perceptively called merciful and mighty. These

July 26, 2017

The Good Shepherd Lays Down His Life for His Sheep

By Ronald G. Davis John, in his Gospel, borrows the beautiful image of God that permeates the Scriptures: God is our shepherd. And that image may be the most common symbolic image reproduced through the Christian era. From mosaics in the second-century catacomb resting places of those first Christians in Rome to magnificent stained-glass windows in hundreds of 20th-century church buildings from Europe to Australia, the shepherd shows himself ready to protect and feed. When Jesus applies that image to himself, in John 10, he pictures the absolute devotion the shepherd maintains in every circumstance. His whole existence is given

July 21, 2017

Church & Ministry Church Leadership Preaching

At Eye Level

By Ronald G. Davis A few years ago, a well-known preacher”s morning sermon was titled “God at Eye Level.” That”s a provocative title, isn”t it? In that Jerusalem upper room long ago and at this table today, we are at eye level with God. That”s an intriguing thought to me. Imagine those men who were at the table in the upper room, eye-to-eye with Jesus. Could each look him in the eye? Or did each try to hide his face in the shadows of that dimly lit room, not so much as daring to catch his eyes with their own?

July 19, 2017

Culture & Public Square Justice

Man of Sorrows

By Jackina Stark She stood at a fourth-floor window overlooking the city of Phnom Pehn. She had spent a week in Battambang, Cambodia, at Rapha House, working with those who minister to the girls rescued from sex slavery, and in Phnom Pehn, visiting hundreds of poor children who attend the Kids Club, a prevention ministry. Her fellow workers had gone to the street market, letting her beg off. In the room, utterly quiet now, her gaze fell on the area of the city where at that very moment she knew girls, some children, were being sexually used and abused. Her

July 12, 2017

Discipleship & Spiritual Formation

Turning Point

By Ronald G. Davis Turning points sometimes come in a roar. Turning points sometimes come in a whisper. In modern history the roar was heard in the deathly din of D-Day. And the course of modern human history was changed. In biblical history, the whisper was heard by Elijah when he had fled in cowardice from an interloper in the messianic line. God called him with “a still small voice” to return to his ministry in the court of kings. And the course of Israel”s history was redirected toward a Messiah. John 6 pictures just such a dramatic turning point.

July 7, 2017

Book Reviews Reviews

Kidnapped by the Taliban

By Ron Davis Many Americans were introduced to one of the stories of the Afghanistan war when they saw the 2014 CBS interview of Dr. Dilip Joseph regarding his experience and the book he had just written with James Lund, Kidnapped by the Taliban (Thomas Nelson Publishers). Dr. Joseph was the medical director for Morning Star Development, active in Afghanistan, serving locals with medical care and training. Returning from a mission of mercy, Dr. Joseph and his party were captured by the Taliban and held for several days. Their captors kept them moving constantly, and they were in moment-by-moment fear

June 30, 2017